


Beggars Banquet

by the_dala



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean (Movies)
Genre: Comedy of Errors, Established Relationship, F/M, First Kiss, First Time, M/M, Morning After, Multi, OT4, Polyamory, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-21
Updated: 2015-04-21
Packaged: 2018-03-25 02:42:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,788
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3793666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_dala/pseuds/the_dala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A domestic squabble results in some curious mix-ups among a maiden, a blacksmith, a pirate, and a commodore.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Beggars Banquet

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: this does begin with some infidelity if you're sensitive to that, although everything works out to the satisfaction of all parties.
> 
> Originally published May 26th, 2004; CoBP-compliant only.

“It seems as if I’ll be spending a great deal of time on my own, then!”

As cutting last retorts went, it wasn’t the best she might have come up with, but Elizabeth was too busy slamming the front door to care. She paused for a moment and considered opening and closing it again, just to drive the point home, before deciding it was overkill.

Huffing angrily, she set off down the street. Her destination was not so essential as the need to get away from the house and from Will. It had not been a particularly important row, beginning as a discussion about a formal dinner at her father’s house next Sunday. Will didn’t want to go; Elizabeth insisted upon it. They both dug in their heels and before she realized what was happening, there had been shouting and stomping of feet and herself storming out the door.

Not exactly the start of an epic battle, but it was their first argument as man and wife that had ended in such a way, and she was perhaps more upset over the fact that it had been caused by a mere trifle.  
Nevertheless, she felt that she was in the right and it was his duty to seek her out and apologize. She would be gracious about it, especially if his eyes went adorably wide and earnest as they tended to do, and then she could go home to a warm bed, as supper would no doubt be cold by then.

The shout of a coachman drew her out of her reverie and she blinked as she looked around. Somehow she’d managed to work her way nearly into the center of town. Business was shutting down for the day, late afternoon sunlight making her squint at the bustling townspeople. Will would have felt right at home, but she was at a loss as to what to do with herself. Running to her father felt childish, and she was much too proud to admit to any of her friends that her new marriage had already hit a snag.

It was then she saw him. The commodore was standing still at the edge of the square, looking as dazed and uncertain as Elizabeth felt. Well, perhaps he wasn’t the obvious choice for a dinner companion, but he’d been unusually friendly towards both she and Will lately. It was high time they all let bygones be bygones, relinquish old grudges and become the kind of friends who had survived a nightmare together.

All right – in truth she was just looking for a sympathetic ear, and she knew he would never breathe a word of it or take Will’s side over her own. He was a lonely fellow these days, avoiding the many women of Port Royal who had taken it upon themselves to comfort him after she’d rejected him. Elizabeth was glad for the open season on Norrington, for she’d been honest when she called him a good man, and he deserved a good wife to share his days with. But for whatever reason, he kept his distance and had all but faded from the social scene. Maybe it was time to delicately question him about that as well.

Having found an additional, less self-serving reason to engage him, she caught his eye across the square and smiled.

 

 

For several long minutes, Will could do nothing but stand and stare at the door. Gradually the desire to pound the wood into pulp left him and he was able to unclench his fists, wincing at the way his nails had dug into the flesh of his palms.

What had she meant by that? She wasn’t leaving him – God no, that was preposterous, no matter what she'd said, but...

Was she?

It was Elizabeth. Her motivations were not often easy to decipher, even when her husband made an attempt – perhaps especially then.

He’d been warned of this long before the wedding, practically from the moment he had kissed her on the parapet of the fort. Oh, they didn’t dare speak to him directly, of course, all needing their horses shod and their hinges repaired and their shiny new blades forged. But Will was more observant that most people gave him credit for, and he heard the whispers.

He’s a blacksmith, the upper crust said. He’s a blacksmith sired by a pirate and probably born of a whore. In no way, shape or form is he good enough for her. He’ll never be able to provide her with the life for which she was destined. They’ll be penniless and miserable and won’t we all feel satisfied to have seen it coming.

The common folk sang a different tune, especially unwed girls and their keen-eyed mothers. She’s a high-strung hussy, they sniffed. She’ll make demands of him that the poor boy couldn’t possibly keep. He’ll be trapped and miserable and she’ll make a fool of him by tumbling men with fortunes before she leaves him for one of them.

If Elizabeth had heard the same whispers, she paid them no more mind than he did. They were wrong, all of them. He and Elizabeth had seen each other through the worst of times and they each knew the other’s heart, without question, without doubt. No matter that they were young and their future uncertain; they were in love, and the lengths to which they were prepared to go stretched far beyond what these snobbish pedestrian minds could imagine.

Will found himself heartened by his musings rather than sobered. What reason did he have to doubt when they’d already been through so much together? So things weren’t perfect – so they were capable of snapping at each other and being selfish and saying unkind things. It didn't mean their marriage was doomed to failure. When Elizabeth came back –

He glanced at the clock on the wall. She’d been gone for nearly an hour. Checking at the window, he saw no sign of her.

What if she’d really meant it? What if she did intend to leave him?

A dark blur popped up in front of him and Will jumped back.

“Jack!” he hissed, pleased to see him but thinking that his timing could’ve been better. “What are you doing here?”

Jack propped his elbows on the sill and made sorrowful faces through the glass. “Goin’ to let me in?”

Cursing under his breath, Will went to the door. Jack was too adept at reading him. Taking a deep breath, he steadied his mind and forced his face into an expression of calm surprise.

When he opened the door, Jack had only to take one look at him. “All right, lad, what’s happened?” he demanded, slipping inside and fixing Will with a concerned frown.

Despite himself, Will could feel his shoulders slump. _I will not let my emotions get the best of me,_ he thought, giving himself a mental slap.

“Elizabeth and I...had an argument...” he said, struggling to keep the quaver from his voice.

Jack clucked and drew him into the parlor. “Poor William, come tell ol’ Jack all about it.”

 

 

James had seen weather at sea change faster than Elizabeth Turner’s face, but only barely. One moment she was smiling and greeting him cordially and the next her whole body seemed to crumple as she propped her head on his shoulder and let out a sniff.

Alarmed, James glanced around to see if anyone had noticed. The Turners were currently the favorite gossip subject in town, and God knew how fast bad news would travel if he were to be seen with a sobbing Elizabeth collapsing in his arms. Not that his heart didn’t tighten at the sight of her distress, but this exchange was clearly going to have to take place away from prying eyes.

He thought of asking her back to his home, but that would be just as suspicious. And Jack might be tapping on the window at that very moment, begging to be let back in. A frown stole over James’ face at the mere idea. After making such accusations and being greeted with all the cold fury James could muster, any sensible person would have stayed far away from him for some time. Jack Sparrow, however, was anything and everything but sensible, and James had no doubt he’d find a pouting pirate sneaking into his house later that night to try and soothe his temper.

Right, not the most opportune train of thought at the moment – he had Elizabeth to worry about. Seeing her take a deep breath in preparation for another sob, he took her by the elbow and drew her into a nearby alley.

She left off crying to wrinkle her nose at the smell. Oh, splendid: they had ended up behind the butcher’s. Still, it was infinitely preferable to the dead center of the town square, and there were only a few mangy dogs to disturb them here.

“Oh, James,” Elizabeth said suddenly, burying her face in his chest. His arms went around her and he awkwardly patted her back, feeling his face beginning to turn red. Even when they had been courting, he'd never been this close to her. “Will and I had a fight, and we were yelling, and he called me a spoiled brat –”

“He did?” James demanded, a sudden swell of righteous, protective anger making his voice harsh.

Elizabeth winced. “Well, to be fair, I called him a good number of...rather more incendiary things first. I don’t think my parents-in-law deserved to be so maligned, especially when they’re in no position to defend themselves.”

James chuckled, shifting her into a more comfortable position, his shyness ebbing away at her sheepish tone.

“Anyway,” Elizabeth mumbled into his lapel, “point being that I walked out on him and I’ve no idea how to fix it.”

He wondered briefly just how he’d become first choice for advising on marital trials, considering that he was woefully under-qualified – unless one counted Jack, but that was as much like dealing with a wayward child as a spouse, most of the time. In any case, Elizabeth was plainly hurting and looking up at him with pleading hazel eyes, tearstreaks doing nothing to mar the fair beauty of her skin. Not that that mattered, of course – water under the bridge. Someone else’s life, someone else’s dreams.

Nevertheless, he still cared for her and liked to think that they were friends, after a fashion. So he told her what he would have wanted someone to tell his own wife in her position; what, to be honest, he wished somebody was telling Jack at this moment, because despite James’ opinion that he would come crawling back with his tail between his legs, the fear that he’d decide to sail off instead weighed too heavily on his mind.

“Go home,” he said gently, wiping a tear from her cheek with his thumb. “Tell him how you feel. Disaster seems to strike whenever you don’t.” He could hear the unexpected bitterness creep into his voice and was ashamed. Over her or not, he had no right to remind her of their history at a time like this.

Elizabeth studied him for a moment, but apparently decided to take his smile at face value. She met it with one of her own, bright and fresh, and he had to swallow down a ridiculous urge to trace the freckles on the bridge of her nose with his lips.

Something changed in her eyes, though her smile didn't falter. The moment for letting her go had long since passed, but James found himself frozen in place at the silent question. If he could just gaze on her a bit longer, he might be able to figure out what exactly it was.

“Speaking my mind,” she said, pausing and looking surprised at the way her breathing had quickened without either of them noticing, “has always been my pet vice.”

“Your mind, yes,” James murmured, desperately trying to figure out where the words had come from. How Jack would double over with laughter if he could see them now. James didn’t care, couldn’t care – couldn’t see anything but Elizabeth’s bottom lip being captured between her teeth. “But your heart?”

No, he had not actually said that, had he –

He stopped worrying about what he’d said, because she had grabbed him by the shoulders and was kissing him, over and over.

 

 

“...and then she left. _Left_ , Jack! Just...strode through the door and disappeared down the street.”

Jack sympathized with Will, he really and truly did. It was a hard thing to watch a lover turn her back on you. But for Christ’s sake, why hadn’t the boy run after her? Elizabeth was a lass who needed to be chased; the commodore, bless his heart, had proved that with all his hemming and hawing and if-I-may-ing. From what Jack had seen, Will had finally worked up enough mettle to meet his headstrong girl with equal measure. Mmm, the thoughts of what went on between _those_ sheets – just because he had a perfectly welcoming port in Port Royal didn’t mean he was willing to dismiss those thoughts, not at all.

Well, not always perfectly welcoming, at least not today. Jamie could be a prickly one when he got an itch, and the reversion to stuffed shirt sometimes took them both unawares despite all the oiling of joints Jack had done. This was the first time James had actually gotten angry enough to throw Jack out, and the first time Jack was annoyed enough to let him stew in his own juices until he felt properly sorry for it. Really, all he’d done was bring up the possibility that James could warm his cold bed with other company during the weeks Jack was gone from him. It was downright generous on his part, considering that James had far more opportunity to become attached to someone else if he fished in this small pond. Jack, on the other hand, kept time only with temporary partners at this port or that. He’d made the rule against consorting with members of his own crew to save himself aggravation, but no harm done if the commodore thought it was for his especial benefit alone.

Oh, but special he was, and far more wanton than Jack would ever had guessed. To his consternation, it was usually himself having to cry uncle – or would be, if his pride had ever let him do so. James was the most enthused lover he’d taken in a very long time, and Jack had become smitten enough to keep risking death by sneaking into town every now and then.

But it wasn’t James curled up in a sad little heap at his side, and it wasn’t James around whom Jack was carefully slipping an arm, wary of frightening him off.

“I don’t know what to do,” Will groaned, dropping his chin onto his knees.

“There now, lad,” said Jack, patting his shoulder. And that fine muscle was even firmer than he remembered – how tight Will could hold on with arms like that...

No, no, no – Elizabeth. Sympathy. Sage advice. Right.

He’d run through a few scenarios involving himself giving advice to Will in regards to his wife, but they usually ended in graphic demonstrations involving the girl herself, and then of course he had to make sure Will had been paying strict attention to the lesson...

Will was blinking moist brown eyes at him and he shook his head, trying to clear it before he glazed over entirely.

“Women’re a puzzle,” he said to the boy, “and yours is e’en more complicated than most. So I suggest not making an attempt to figure out what’s best. Wait till she gets back and see how she greets you, then go from there.”

“But...but what if she doesn’t come back?”

Oh, for – of all the – couldn’t he see that he’d gotten his happily ever after?

“You let her take the lead, so now you have to wait on her,” he replied in a complete non-answer. Truthfully, he didn’t know whether Elizabeth would be back as soon as Will was obviously hoping to have her. The lass possessed an uncommon temper.

Will sighed in frustration. “Nothing you’ve said has eased my mind in any way,” he said, narrowing his eyes at Jack, looking vaguely betrayed.

“Want me to make you feel better, is ‘at it?” Jack asked, knowing that Will wouldn’t catch the purr lurking just beneath his words. Sure enough, the boy nodded.

Jack considered that permission granted. Elizabeth was going to murder him, slowly and painfully, and then James was going to do a stiff-legged jig over his grave, but he would have a taste of sweet blacksmith before he died.

He dove in, closing his mouth on Will’s startled squeak.

 

 

The closer Elizabeth got to James, the more his scent of wool and salt air drove away the stench of freshly slaughtered meat. So she ignored warnings of protest in her mind and tugged him nearer still.

He moaned into her mouth, one hand coming up to cradle the back of her neck. He was gentle with her, as she’d expected on the handful of occasions she’d thought about kissing him, but never could she have foreseen the passion she could feel quivering just beneath the surface. Wondering how she might make him release it, she chased his tongue with her own and bit him, not quite sharply enough to draw blood, but enough to suggest the faintest hint of menance.

Someone – _who? Who would dare?_ I _want him_ – must have been rough with him recently, because the ploy worked beautifully. The large, strong hands went to her waist and tightened, sending a hot thrill down her spine as he pressed her against the wall. No surprise to find him hard, the heat of his body seeking hers even through the barrier of clothing. Far too much of it, really – she wriggled one arm between them to tug at her bodice. His ravenous mouth left her own – the dress had slipped enough to let him drag teeth across one shoulder before he found that spot to the left of her collarbone – how she’d trembled the first time Will had kissed her there –

Will.

With that one thought, she was able to summon enough presence of mind to shove James away. The naked desire clouding his eyes made heat pool low in her belly, but it faded as he sucked in a breath and came back to his senses.

The horror on his face was too painful to bear, so she closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see herself to know what she would find – hair mussed, laces torn, face flushed, as beautifully ravished and as damned as any whore.

“I – I’m sorry,” James gasped out. “I don’t know what –”

“I must get home,” she said woodenly, hoping that he would be gone when she opened her eyes.

 

 

Will had not kissed many women. There had been only two before Elizabeth: one a blushing peck on the lips from the milliner’s youngest daughter when he was fourteen, the second a more lingering, exploratory kiss with Patty Blye at seventeen. It had been sweet, but thoughts of who he would rather be kissing had made him pull away. Patty, her dare fulfilled, had shrugged and run off again.

Only three women, and yet he knew that none could ever kiss like Jack, even without the beard and mustache scraping against his skin.

For one thing Jack was bold as brass, his tongue demanding in Will’s mouth and his hands sure on Will’s body. Elizabeth could be just as brazen, but she was staking a claim on her husband, while Jack had never touched him before – not like this.

Not like – oh God – a hand slipping inside his shirt, hot and dry and more callused than Elizabeth’s could ever be, no matter how many times she burned her fingers trying to cook. Up and under the hem, stroking blunt nails against his ribs, harder and harder until he was bucking his hips in reflex. A smile Will could feel, curving both sets of lips, as Jack’s attention was drawn and his over-friendly hand went seeking more responsive prey.

Jack’s long fingers closed over his cock and Will bit down on Jack’s tongue, which only made him chuckle and begin to stroke. So confidently, knowingly – Elizabeth had asked him, on their wedding night, how he touched himself. Too mortified to answer, Will had shaken his head and squeezed his eyes shut when she pursed her lips and determined to find out for herself what would please him. He could still see her eyes fixed on him, curious and hunger-dark and watching every reaction flicker across his face.

Watching him –

To his surprise, the notion sent a bolt of heat straight to the hard flesh Jack was handling. But there should have been shame, shame and fear and horror at what he was doing, what he was allowing Jack to do, how his wife would feel if she knew how badly he –

“Elizabeth,” he cried, tearing his mouth away.

Jack seemed to understand, rather than mistaking it as him saying the wrong name at the right touch; his hand paused on Will’s erection, though it did not move away.

“Elizabeth is not here,” said Jack, looking him square in the eye and speaking very deliberately, with none of his usual pomp and circumstance.

_You’re just as stuck-up as you think them to be, Will Turner! The only difference is that you give yourself airs of noble suffering about it!_

Which would be the greater suffering – to have Jack stop, or to have him go on, to lead him up to Will’s marriage bed where he seemed to think he belonged?

Jack’s fingers tightened on him again, the band of the silver ring he wore a familiar coolness, even if it was on the wrong finger.

Caught between a rock and a hard place – only Jack’s black gaze was both and Will, painfully swollen cock notwithstanding, was completely formless.

Will closed his eyes and fisted his hand in Jack’s hair, part of him hoping he wasn’t hurting, part of him hoping he was, all of him realizing that Jack wouldn’t mind one way or the other.

James found himself falling backwards as he watched Elizabeth walk away, grateful to find a solid plank wall at his back.

She moved as if she expected someone to accost her. Her hands smoothed her hair and her skirt, though he had assured her that everything was tucked back into place, neat and clean. They could do little about the color to her lips and her cheeks, or the guilt in her eyes.

Elizabeth paused before turning the corner onto her street. He could see her take a deep, steadying breath, tucking one last curl behind her ear. Her chin lifted and she glanced back; he felt glad that the shadows of twilight obscured him from her view, as the two of them had been hidden when they’d embraced.

When she had broken her vows to William Turner. When some dark thing had taken hold of him and made him pin her to the wall against which he now slumped, both of them fighting for control over a forbidden kiss.

It would be a lie to say he’d never seen her face in his dreams, even after Jack had begun creeping through his window. Sin compounded upon sin – he could blame the one for temptation, for corruption. His voice would be weak as he did it and Jack was whispering hot in his ear, telling him that he was fooling himself, but in this moment he wanted to deny any culpability he possibly could. Because this – tonight – this had been his fault entirely. Elizabeth had come to him in vulnerability, trusting in his friendship and his unshakable values. Values he had given up, again and again as he welcomed a pirate to his bed; friendship he had spat on with the first touch of desire he’d felt while holding Elizabeth’s gaze.

_But she wanted you as well,_ reasoned some portion of his brain that did not want him flogged until he bled. _It was nothing you did to her; she was as much herself in your arms as Jack has ever been._

Thoughts of them both ran together and that was damning, too; the one person on his mind should have been Will, alone in their house, completely ignorant of the dishonor James had done him, the liberties James had taken with his wife.

He was not much for praying, but he felt that this occasion called for an attempt. Yet the words would not come; he murmured a bare “Our Father who art...” before the prayer died on his tongue. He could not live with this secret bearing down upon his lungs. The least he could possibly do was apologize to Elizabeth. Telling Will was her choice, but privately James felt that the pressure of things unspoken might stop his breath forever.

And Jack – heaven only knew what Jack would say. He was a fan of taking one’s pleasure whenever and wherever possible, but he was also rather protective of the Turners. The only thing certain was that he’d get it out of James easily, no matter how hard he tried to resist.

He could not return home for fear that Jack would be there, and he couldn’t just stand here in the dark and feel his knees shake. And although he was probably the last person on earth Elizabeth wanted to see right now, he could not simply leave things as they were.

Rather poetically, in a way he didn’t feel he deserved, the moon rose to light him on his way.

 

There were many reasons Jack’s old friend would have been proud of his son. If Bill could have seen him smile, seen him throw a punch, seen him lift a perfect weapon from his beloved forge...all these things they’d spoken of in the more pleasant of Jack’s dreams, over a pint or two, and there was nothing he’d seen so far to prove Bill couldn’t hear him somehow.

The one thing he figured it might be wise to keep to himself was the pure delight in bed the boy had turned out to be.

Nerves had struck Will once again when they’d tumbled down, no doubt prompted by memories of Elizabeth fluffing the pillows and turning back the covers that very morning. Jack had distracted him with kisses that burned and twisted their limbs together, until Will was wrapped around him and clearly thinking of nothing but his body’s needs. He was too close to the edge for Jack to waste time on the proper worship such a fine physique deserved, taking the boy into his mouth just for the taste of it. The way Will’s hands immediately threaded through his hair, the way his hips moved surely under firm suction, made Jack’s eyebrows lift and an appreciate growl hum through the slim, pretty cock between his lips. There wasn’t much he’d put past Elizabeth to begin with, but she was a bonny lass indeed.

One thing he was certain she didn’t have the faculties for, though. Jack eased off, placating a whimpering Will with distracted kisses as he urged him over onto his knees. The boy swallowed hard, but didn’t tremble as Jack ran hands down his flanks and swiped a tongue across the ridges of his spine. The oil was conveniently tucked into Jack’s sash, meant for James, and oh, how terribly needy and confused the man had been the first time Jack had bent over him like this. Will, to his surprise, kept his strange calm even as Jack pierced him with a finger, twitching and letting out a soft, startled grunt when Jack gave him more and twisted until he found that sweet spot inside.

Sweet – that was what he was, no doubt about it. He murmured it into Will’s ear as he held still above him, unsure whether it was the sound of his voice or the head of his cock pressing against Will’s entrance that made the boy shudder. A quick thrust forward – no need to draw out the unnecessary – and Will didn’t make a sound, though he had his face pressed into the pillow so some small noise might have been stifled. Jack waited a moment, letting him adjust, starting to move slowly at a deep breath and a nod from the body beneath his own.

“Beautiful,” Jack continued, his eyes closing tight at the heat of it. “Tha’s what y’are, love, so...beautiful...” And Will was shifting under him, moving back against him, his head turned to the side so that Jack could see the speechless wonder in his eyes. God, he truly was – Jack suddenly found himself wishing that Elizabeth could see this, the perfect way they fit together, hear the rough sounds coming from Will’s throat and shed light on if they were any different from the noises he made when he was with her.

That old bitch Fortuna must've been having herself a hearty chuckle at his expense, because the good Mrs. Turner happened to walk in at that very moment.

 

She made her way back to the house like a blind woman, unseeing and uncaring of her  
surroundings until her fingers were fumbling at the doorknob. There was no light burning downstairs and she shut the door quietly behind her, not wanting to wake Will.

The guest room beckoned as she climbed the stairs and passed it, because she could still feel James’ lips at her throat, his hands on her body, and she was sure Will would be able to feel it too. But coward was one thing Elizabeth had sworn never to be, so she steeled herself and went on to her own bedchamber.

She was seconds away from seeing him and she still had not decided whether or not she was going to tell him. It might burst upon her tongue the moment he met her eyes; she might choke it down and smile warmly and lower herself to the bed to distract him from any shadows in her eyes. The coin was in the air and she knew she couldn’t call a side until she was actually standing in front of him.

As her hand, shaking slightly, reached for the knob, she heard a ragged sound from within, like a sob or the breathing of someone trying to hold off tears. Guilt tore through her – she would tell him, he deserved to know – she'd hold her tongue, it would hurt him so badly –

Elizabeth flung open the door and her world fell flat.

Some part of her mind registered the scene – Will on his hands and knees amid the rumpled sheets, Jack kneeling behind him, the tableau unmistakable to a girl who’d grown up reading tales of piracy by candlelight – but mostly she saw Will’s face. Mostly she saw his eyes, unfocused with some intense union of pain and pleasure. Just for an instant that was all there was; then recognition flickered, and naked shame, high alarm – the second time tonight she had seen that flame within the eyes of men she cared deeply for.

She was only distantly aware of Jack levering himself off her husband and two voices calling her name, as she turned and nearly met her death from the speed at which she took the stairs.

 

Will felt barely a thing as Jack pulled out, Elizabeth busy fleeing the room. They both said her name, Will with too many conflicting emotions to name and Jack with something like resignation.

He scrambled to his feet, meaning to follow her.

“Naked,” Jack reminded him. Will turned and caught the breeches thrown at him, needing the few seconds it took to tug them on before he could look at Jack. The other man was sitting back on his heels, managing to look both indolent and deadly alert, but not ashamed.

Perhaps he had that luxury, but Will did not. Instead he had the wedding band around his finger, which he had not even bothered to take off, and all that it implied. 

“Will –” Jack began, managing to put a world of meaning behind that one word. He stopped as Will shook his head, as much to clear the sweat dripping into his eyes as anything else.

“I can’t,” he said, his voice sounding hollow in the quiet room. “I have to –”

“I know,” Jack replied with a sigh that Will couldn’t begin to decipher. “Hope you don’t have any weapons in the house, though.”

All Will could hope was that Elizabeth wasn’t thinking clearly enough to remember where they were, but he didn't put much stock in the thought.

He found her standing with her back to the front door. Her face looked as though the skin had been stretched too tight across the bones, and her eyes stared right through him.

“In our bed.” Voice perfectly colorless. Hands balled at her sides, ready to swing at him. He didn’t think he would even try to block the blow.

“I can...” His own voice died without warning. ‘Explain’ was the logical ending to the sentence, but it was not within the realm of possibility. The words for what she had seen, what he’d felt for Jack – what he still felt, a coldly rational part of his mind could admit, what he’d have gone on feeling if they had not been interrupted – they were not words he felt he could say aloud, much less to her.

Will was completely unprepared for the sudden flood of compassion in her eyes, like tears but shining softer. “Will, we need to –” 

A tentative knock at the door made them both glance to it, then quickly at each other. Will ducked into the hallway beyond the foyer.

 

She answered the door looking much as she had when she’d left him, flustered and well-kissed and thinking so intently he could almost hear the gears turning. Her mouth fell slightly open and James flushed, shifted his weight from foot to foot. The house was dark behind her.

He knew there had to be some better way to get through this than simply rushing headlong, but he was speaking before he could stop himself, his words running over one another in their haste to reach her.

“I must apologize for earlier – I had no intentions of...I swear, Eliza–Mrs. Turner, I have nothing but respect for you and your family, and you have every right to shun me or tell your father about my indiscretions so that he might –”

“James,” she said sharply, holding up a hand. Her eyes looked strained at the corners, and he was suddenly afraid she’d faint.

Instead she shook her head, lowering her gaze to the floor as she reached out to pluck at his sleeve. “You had better come inside.”

 

Feeling heavy dread sink into him with each step, Jack shuffled down to the darkened first floor. The air crackled as if a storm was rising, though the sky outside was clear.

He let none of his uneasiness show as he walked down the hallway to Will, who was pressed against the wall at the far end and listening to low voices coming from the foyer. He rolled his eyes at the sheet wrapped casually around Jack’s hips, waving his hand for quiet. Jack leaned close, somewhat gratified that Will was concentrating too hard to pull away. 

“It’s Norrington,” he whispered with a frown. “I don’t know what they’re talking about.”

James, here – now, of all times? It was enough of a coincidence to make Jack instantly suspicious. Ignoring Will’s protesting shove, he risked a peek around the corner.

He caught the look on James’ face as he stood in front of Elizabeth, backlit by the moon, and suddenly a great deal came together in his head, almost too quickly to process. But Jack didn’t let that stop him; he stepped into view, dragging Will behind him.

 

As the two half-naked men came under the opalescent light, Elizabeth and James fell silent. For long moments there was naught in the room but eyes darting back and forth, bewildered and troubled – all except for Jack, who was looking inordinately pleased with himself.

Then several voices were raised at once, all of them in varying levels of indignance.

“Jack, would you let go of me!”

“Jack Sparrow, how dare you parade around my house –”

“Will someone please explain what’s – Jack, how –”

The pirate held up a hand, rolling it on his wrist while he waited for silence. They gave it to him reluctantly, wary of the grin hiding at the corners of his lips.

“It seems, friends, that we have found ourselves in quite the unique predicament.”

“Unique?” Elizabeth burst out, sweeping her glare up and down his body. “I should say so, considering what I’ve just caught you doing to my husband.”

James blinked owlishly at Will, who rubbed a hand against the back of his neck. “Can we please talk about this privately?” he muttered, giving Jack an equally dark look.

“Oh no,” Jack assured him with a slight bow, “dear James is just as much a part of this tangled web as you and I and the lass.”

Surprised at this assertion, Will looked to Elizabeth. It was her turn to blush and staunchly avoid his eyes.

“Good kisser, ain’t he?” Jack asked her with an exaggerated wink.

Will gaped. “You...?” He turned to James, his brows drawing together dangerously. “ _You._ ” 

“Damn you, Jack,” James whispered, closing his eyes with a pained expression.

Before the blacksmith could take a step toward the commodore, Jack reached out to pinch the bare flesh of his waist. “Glass houses, love.”

“Indeed,” said Elizabeth archly.

He waggled a finger at her. “I might as well say you the same. Will’s not ‘xactly the first Turner to know the pleasures of a night with Captain Jack, now is he?”

Elizabeth went from delicate rose blush straight to tomato red, fueled by anger more than anything else. “You swore you’d never tell him!” she shouted at Jack, shoulders hunching with the force of her ire. “It was on the island, long before we were married,” she hurriedly explained to Will, who was looking back and forth between them as if he couldn’t decide who had wounded him more deeply.

“But...” Will’s brow crinkled in hurt confusion. “But you were a virgin on our wedding night...”

James had backed up against the closed door and fresh embarrassment overtook his face at this.

“I was, darling,” Elizabeth said, coming nearer to him and pausing before clarifying, “...technically.”

Fury stormed in Will’s eyes as he turned to Jack with his fists raised, but he wilted as Jack quirked an expressive eyebrows at his state of undress, silently reminding him of how he’d gotten to it.

James cleared his throat to fill the abrupt silence. “I’ll, ah, just be going then, shall I.”

“Don’ you dare, James Norrington,” Jack retorted before he could even turn around. “Some might say that this is all your fault, y’know.”

Crossing his arms over his chest, James snorted. “And how do you figure that, Sparrow?”

“Well, if you hadn’t thrown me out, we’d’ve been too busy buggering each other rotten to have the pretty young things come crying into our arms,” said Jack with obvious satisfaction.

James’ back went ramrod-straight and the sound of his skull smacking against the door was plainly audible.

Since Will couldn’t pick his jaw up off the floor long enough to speak, it was Elizabeth whose flabbergasted voice rang out clearly through the hall. “You mean – you two...” Jack nodded smartly and James gave her a watery, miserable grimace. 

“Oh, bloody _hell_ ,” she muttered, flinging her hands up. “Please tell me, is there anyone standing here right now who hasn’t engaged in some sort of illicit activity with every _other_ person standing here right now?"

Will and James locked eyes across the way.

Elizabeth stared at her husband. “Do you mean to tell me –”

“No!” he said, his gaze flickering away in discomfort.

“Never. But we do seem to be the only exception,” James added frostily, meeting Jack’s smug smile with an immovable expression.

Jack chose to ignore him and instead turned to Elizabeth. “Remember that night well, do you?”

Her eyes rolled heavenward and she snorted. “You’d like to think it.”

Jack clasped a hand over his heart as if he’d been shot, making a grab for the sheet as it began to slip.

“My head aches,” James offered, sinking down onto the floor and clutching at his wig. The sounds of arguing rose and compounded the problem before cool fingers lifted his chin. Will knelt before him, looking concerned. For a moment they simply looked at one another, blocking out the rest of the world and attempting to make sense of the situation in which they’d found themselves.

James glanced past him at the squabbling pair. Their conversation was difficult to follow, but Elizabeth seemed to be insinuating that Jack’s affections had not been worth the total loss of her innocence, while Jack was blaming rum and feminine prerogative for her poor memory. Finally he gave up any attempts at persuasive language and took her in his arms instead, bending her backwards and kissing her for all he was worth, which was generally agreed upon to be quite a bit. She made a low, appreciative noise and neither of them paid the loose sheet any mind as it fluttered to the floor.

Will had not looked and now his eyes closed in long-suffering patience as the smacking sounds reached their ears. James’ shoulders began to quiver with laughter at the absurdity of it all and after widening in surprise, Will’s eyes crinkled as well. A chortle bubbled out of him, he leaned his forehead against James’, and then they were sharing a kiss as soft and easy as their mirth.

When they broke apart, they found Elizabeth and Jack peering at them with curiosity and no small amount of arousal.

“Last man standing,” said Jack to no one in particular, leaning over to lick at the shell of Elizabeth’s ear. She had eyes only for Will now, drawing him forward without a word. Jack in turn crossed to James, pulling him up off the floor. He tucked himself into the taller man’s arms, letting James cross arms over his waist to conceal what the sheet had totally abandoned, lying as it was puddled around Will’s and Elizabeth’s feet. Pirate and commodore silently watched husband and wife exchange a kiss and a tight embrace. She whispered something in his ear that made his eyebrows creep up to his hairline, before releasing him to turn and grin at the others.

“Gentlemen,” she said warmly, “won’t you join us upstairs?”

 

In the master bedroom, candles were lit, clothing was shed, and the four of them found themselves in a confused tangle on a bed that really was not large enough for that many people. No matter, though; no one was shy about appropriating a lap to save space, scooting this way, moving that leg, twisting in someone’s arms to allow for greater maneuverability. Highly polite ‘if you’d be so kind’s and ‘of course, darling’s and ‘thanks ever so’s gave way to moans running the gamut from soft to sharp, cries penetrating the insect sounds of the Jamaican night, breathing from lungs that gasped and strove and simply could not get enough air.

The madcap pile gradually took on something resembling order when Will tugged forcefully on Jack, muttering something about finishing what they’d started. Elizabeth watched with a giggle as Jack’s eyes went round at Will’s not-so-subtle tweak of his cock. She was content to let them break off, still close enough to feel every breath and shiver, while she pulled James atop her.

Leaning on his elbow, he tilted his head so that he could keep an eye on them while he teased Elizabeth’s nipples into pebbled hardness with tongue and teeth. She drew her knees up, trapping him comfortably between them and combing through his dark hair with her fingers. 

Will had managed to pin Jack down with his body weight, but the pirate still wriggled beneath him. Finally he sighed, got a fetchingly determined set to his jaw, and bent his head down to tentatively lap at the clear fluid leaking from the tip of Jack’s cock.

“Oh, that’s very intrepid of him,” James murmured into the hollow of Elizabeth’s throat, her body curving against him as he sent a hand wandering through the curls between her legs.

“I take full credit for it – and for that,” she added as Will prompted a howl from Jack by doing something with his tongue that James was too busy goggling at Elizabeth to see. At his incredulous look, she smirked. “Although if we complete the circle, it goes back to Jack, so he has himself to thank, really.”

“You – he – that?” he managed, unable to stop himself from imagining her full lips running up and down his own shaft. The fantasy caused his fingers to jerk against her sensitive flesh, spreading wetness and making her gasp.

Panting as he sped up the motion, she nodded and said, “And I’m – quite good too – but later, yes?” And she hauled on his arms, locking her ankles behind his back and looking up at him imperiously. “Because if I don’t have you inside me at this very moment, James, I think I shall scream.”

“Please feel free, my dear,” James replied with an unexpected wicked curve to his mouth as he pushed into her. In actuality it was Jack who screamed, Will having mastered the trick of using his teeth without hurting too badly.

Jack’s head lolled about on the pillow and his eyes came to rest on James, twinkling with merry desire beneath thick lashes. “Nearly as fast a learner as you were, Jamie.” He reached over to run a fingernail down James’ braced arm.

“Shut up, Jack,” Elizabeth snapped, interrupting herself with a high-pitched whimper, “you’re...distracting him.” Jack offered her his hand and she winked at James as she sucked a couple of fingers into her mouth before biting down on them. Will, noticing that he didn’t quite have Jack’s full attention, grunted in annoyance and swallowed him to the root. It did the trick; Jack’s hand flailed, nearly smacking James in the face, before withdrawing to tangle in Will’s tousled curls. Satisfied, Elizabeth pulled James down for a searing, imploring kiss, rolling her hips just so and causing him to add a groan to the mishmash of cries and curses that Jack was pouring into the heated air.

Her eyes were wild and intent, her body rocking against him frantically, and he knew that she would have no patience for subtlety this first time. James buried his face in her neck, stifled cries of her name escaping his lips again and again as he adjusted his angle and quickened his thrusts.

Will glanced aside at his wife, now hissing under her breath and dragging her nails up James’ back. He pressed a final peck to Jack’s cock and drew himself up.

Jack pouted, beginning to struggle beneath him again. “No fair.” As Will opened his mouth to speak, his eyes narrowed and he said, “And if you claim pirate’s rights, boy, I will take you over my knee.”

Canting his head to the side as he straddled Jack’s hips, Will seemed to be pondering this option and Jack shuddered, his desperate hardness pressing up against Will’s arse. He cast a look down at Will’s rigid, dark-flushed cock and demanded, “How ‘s it that you can last so damn long? I’ve been at this since before you were born – you’re _supposed_ to have come all over me belly by now, ready for another go.”

“Perhaps you didn’t realize this, Jack,” said Will, his voice slipping into a bit of a growl as he carefully balanced and readjusted himself, his left knee fetching up against the join of Elizabeth’s hip and trembling thigh. “But I have a fair amount of free time. And those three hours of fencing practice a day? Whittled down to barely one.” He lowered himself onto Jack, concentration beading his brow with sweat as the pirate’s cock slid partway into him. A bare-teethed grin overtook his face as he nodded to Elizabeth, who was now making good on her offer to scream while she clenched James hard in climax. The man threw his head back and groaned hotly, spilling his seed into her.

“Can you guess, Jack,” Will ground out, grateful that Jack was holding still while he eased himself down and back, “where the rest of that time goes?”

“Aye, I can indeed,” Jack rumbled, his eyes and the gold in his mouth glittering. Patience at its limits, he gripped Will’s hips to set the pace himself.

At Will’s scolding tsk, Elizabeth and James glanced up from their languid cuddle. She twisted out from under him with a kiss to his nose. “Bit of help here?”

“Help with what?” James inquired, watching her in confusion as she curled against Jack’s side. Will sat up to let her press an arm into Jack’s stomach, holding his hips steady. The knees Jack propped up to support a panting blacksmith began to shake.

“Yes,” he said with an irritated snap of his teeth, “what are you all on about?”

“Will and I,” said Elizabeth silkily, “made something like a bet.”

“A challenge,” Will amended, now able to pull himself upward again so that Jack slid almost all the way out of him. The pirate’s eyes bugged out with frustration as Elizabeth kept him from thrusting into the tight, hot channel now being denied.

“Jack has to beg,” she said, giving the flummoxed pirate what could only be described as an evil leer.

“Oh, I’m always in favor of that,” said James, scooting over to catch Jack’s hands as he made a grab for his tormentors.

Jack glared daggers at the commodore. “Jamie, you traitorous bastard! You’re supposed to be on my side!” 

“Sorry, pet,” said James lightly, pinning Jack’s arms over his head with one hand and tugging on his braided beard with the other. Jack thrashed and tried to bite him. “My loyalty’s to king and country –”

“Why, James, I was just thinking of England,” Elizabeth broke in with an innocent fingertip held to her chin. James gave her a wolfish grin before continuing.

“ – not to pirates who act as if they’ve all the wisdom of Solomon – oh, pardon me, that would actually be Sodom – and the rest of us poor ordinary folk ought to count our blessings for being thrown a scrap or two of carnal delight.”

Will was laughing too hard to make a sound, much less join in the verbal sparring.

Trapped, Jack writhed and threw the best temper tantrum he could manage without actually wanting to buck Will off. “Rotten bloody idea, this was! You should all be deeply ashamed of yourselves. The moment I get free I am going to –” He failed to articulate, since James rendered him silent in a kiss with enough force to bruise, drawing it out long enough to asphyxiate them both.

Elizabeth beamed at Will while they were occupied, angling her head up to steal a kiss of her own. “Hello.”

“I think we may need a new bed after tonight,” he said against her lips. They both glanced down; Jack had gone utterly still under James’ skillful manipulation. When he was finally released, Jack sighed long and low, almost content. That wouldn’t do at all.

Will sank down onto him again, impaling himself fully with a soft moan. Jack’s eyes lit up and he bobbed his head in encouragement as Will worked up and down on him and James littered his face and neck with kisses. Elizabeth, feeling uninvolved in anything provoking pleasure, made herself doubly useful by employing her free hand on her husband’s cock. He smiled down at her in thanks, twitching in her fingers. For awhile Will’s little undone noises and the creaking of the springs was all that could be heard. Jack had clamped his lips stubbornly shut.

“ _Jack_ ,” Elizabeth admonished, wagging her head and tutting like a schoolmarm even as she kept pumping Will, which only made Jack’s tongue flicker out to wet his lips.

“Not – gonna – do it,” he grunted.

“But you beg so prettily,” James told him, shoving his hands beneath the pillow. “Move those and you’ll regret it.” He took a place behind Will, kissing Elizabeth on the cheek as he passed and licking a stripe down Will’s spine. “Perhaps we need a bit more encouragement?”

Will twisted his neck to join Elizabeth in watching as James went to work with both hands, cupping Jack’s heavy balls, stroking the patch of skin just behind them, and working a long finger into him with some of the oil that had slipped down. They shared a look which clearly said that there were many things they still had left to learn.

“Oh – God – ” Jack’s voice was the strain of a twig before it snapped. His eyes rolled back into his head until only the whites were visible, and when Will took him all the way in again, he spasmed like a thing possessed.

“That doesn’t count,” said Elizabeth, conferring silently with Will and James. “It wasn’t addressed to us.”

“Come on, Jack,” Will purred, leaning down to flutter his lashes against Jack’s dampened, swollen lips, urging with deliberate movements of his hips.

“Just give in, you old seadog,” said James in lazy amusement. He slid his hands beneath Jack’s arse, lifting up him and deeper into Will, and laved the exposed flesh with his tongue.

“Old?” Jack exclaimed, before his eyes popped open at a particularly well-timed flex of Will’s muscles and twist of James’ finger. Broken at last, he choked out his surrender. “Jesus God, you miserable wretches, take what you want and do whatever the devil may care, please – _please_ – have pity on a dyin’ man an’ let me _come_ –” 

James and Elizabeth pulled back in tandem to let Will rock down onto Jack, who was still sobbing out pleas through gritted teeth. Both men clutched at each other and set a furious, demanding rhythm, release having been so long delayed. Careful to keep from getting an elbow to the head, Elizabeth and James settled on opposite sides, stroking and murmuring and helping first Jack and then Will back down from orgasms that threatened to set the bedding afire.

Will slid bonelessly to one side, barely aware of James catching him and laying him gently down. Elizabeth stretched out alongside an uncommonly still and quiet Jack, propping her head on her hand and tracing patterns in the warm pool on his belly.

“Am I still on the ground?” Will wanted to know, his voice muffled against Jack’s shoulder.

“The bed, actually,” said Elizabeth, leaning over Jack to kiss his fevered brow.

Will frowned. “Oh. I suppose that’s all right, then.” James laughed quietly. Will’s attempts to nuzzle up to Jack were met with total immobility, so he sighed and turned in James’ arms with a nose-wrinkling wince. “Ow.” James soothed him with slow, sweet kisses. Elizabeth, finding herself neglected, poked Jack in the ribs.

His mustache twitched, but otherwise he didn’t react. “I’m never, ever, ever movin’ again,” he said, remarkably clear despite barely opening his lips.

“You are overly dramatic and prone to a martyr complex,” James said from the other side of Will, sucking in a deep breath as Will’s hand stroked lightly over his hardening cock.

Jack opened one eye to squint disbelievingly at the source of the fresh noises. “Y’can’t be serious.” James was too busy leaving a purpling mark on Will’s neck to reply.

Elizabeth sat up to get a better view of them, then raised her eyebrows at Jack. “If you don’t look a bit more alive, I’m going to hop over you and join them, and all you’ll get to do is watch.”

“I’ve no objection to that,” Jack muttered petulantly, but his other eye cracked open to watch as she ran both hands down her own body, delicate fingers curving over her hipbones to form a neat triangle between her thighs.

“Well, if that night on the island was enough for you...”

Jack’s mouth quirked and he rolled onto his side, reaching out to smooth her pout away with a thumb. “Gimme five minutes.”

From behind him, Will let out a piercing moan as James worked with mouth and hands to welcome his cock back from exhaustion. 

Jack craned his neck back, then traded a considering glance with Elizabeth. “Perhaps two.”

 

Daylight found the four sprawled on the relatively small bed, legs and arms and snores not easily attributed to individuals upon first glance. James slept flat on his back as he always did, one arm curled around a softly wheezing Elizabeth and conveniently keeping her from falling out of bed. His other arm and his entire right side were trapped underneath Will, who was flopped on his belly like a overgrown puppy that slept where it dropped. Jack had stolen more than his fair share of pillows, his back pressed to Will with one leg dangling in open air.

Naturally, being at the bottom of the pile, James was the first to awaken. He blinked up at an unfamiliar ceiling before he registered the numb places on his body, deadened by the weight of both Turners.

Wriggling carefully, he managed to shift Elizabeth downward so that her head was beneath his arm. He shook the newly freed limb out before using it to shove Will, which was somewhat less successful. The blacksmith refused to budge or wake up, even when James hissed in his ear.

“You won’t wake him.” Elizabeth propped her chin on his chest and rubbed at her eyes. “Nobody ever wakes Will –” A yawn, showing white teeth and pink tongue. “ – except Will. When I have a bad dream, he just keeps slumbering on even as he pulls me close.” She smiled sleepy affection at her husband’s face, slack against James’ neck.

Still James struggled beneath Will, prodding in sensitive places and getting no response.

“See? I told you –”

With a grunt, Will suddenly woke himself up. He did it by kicking out both legs and burrowing his fists into or under the flesh on either side of him, and Jack went tumbling to the floor.

“Bleeding Christ – ‘m awake, Mam!” He squinted at his surroundings, his eyes clearing as three heads popped over the edge of the bed.

Seeing consternation set his mouth in a thin line, Elizabeth said at once, “Will did it.”

“I’m sorry!”

James merely snickered, then grimaced as his numb right half began coming back to life.

“Aye, of course,” Jack muttered to Will’s continued apologies as the boy dragged him back up. James lay back against the pillows, trying to keep still until the sharp needling sensation went away.

“How did I manage to get stuck on the end?” Elizabeth demanded, crawling over to the center of the bed and jarring James.

“Fuck,” he said under his breath. Elizabeth’s eyes went wide; he’d rarely sworn throughout the night, even at the most opportune moments. She pressed a contrite kiss to his cheek and began to massage his aching muscles.

Will leaned back against Jack, yawning. Jack nosed the top of his head and grinned contentedly at each of them in turn. “Well, ain’t this a sight to behold.”

“I confiscate literature about these kinds of salacious situations all the time, you know,” said James mildly, curving himself around Elizabeth as she crept into Will’s outstretched arms.

“I doubt the writers bother with this part of it – the waking up with too many knees and elbows shoved against uncomfortable places, the hanging half-off the bed -- or all the way off in Jack’s case -- and ech –” She smacked her lips wetly. “The lingering taste of three other people in your mouth.”

“Not to mention the pecan pie a certain someone insisted on at two o’clock in the morning.” Will pointed to the sheet bundled up on the floor; it had somehow managed to get the majority of the pie dumped onto it when Elizabeth leapt at Jack as he was daintily licking it off his fingers. James, temporarily out of the room to soothe his strained vocal cords with some water, had returned and sat in it before anyone could warn him. And exactly how they’d gotten the whole mess cleaned up was too much for the penny novel collection of even the sauciest midshipman.

Jack blew into Will’s ear, earning himself a retaliatory swat on the thigh. “I get a sweet tooth when I‘m frustrated, and one o’ you was being a bloody cocktease. _Again_.” He tugged thoughtfully on his beard. "Can’t recall which, precisely...”

“It was Elizabeth,” said James, stroking her slender forearm.

“Oh yes,” said Jack with a fond grin of remembrance.

Elizabeth pulled herself upright in indignation, dislodging James. “I am not a tease!”

In perfect unison, her three lovers said, “Yes, you are.”

After thinking about it for a moment, Elizabeth shrugged and settled back down. “I suppose I can live with that.”

Jack wiggled his toes in pleasure at Will’s tongue slicking a last trace of sugar from his neck. “Now tell me this isn’t worlds better than quarreling.”

“I can’t even remember why we were fighting,” said Will, shifting himself to let James’ idle hand trace the burn scars on his arm.

Elizabeth’s frown threatened to spoil the morning’s sated peace. “I do. Father’s dinner party.”

Will groaned and flung the arm over his eyes, leaving James to slide a palm along Jack’s hip instead. “Oh, right.”

“Please go,” she said quietly. “If only because I’m asking you to.”

Jack made a horrible face. “Wouldn’t catch me at one of those fanciful affairs, not ‘less I could have my free pick of pockets.”

“The governor will look foolish if his own son-in-law doesn’t attend,” James pointed out.

“He invited you as well,” Elizabeth remarked, giving him a sly, slit-eyed glance. James scowled, recognizing a set-up but too late to rescue himself.

Will lifted his chin over Elizabeth’s head. “I’ll go if you will, James.”

“It’s Lizzie’s old home,” Jack pointed out. “She knows her way around, an’ I’m sure you bright young things can manage to slip away someplace private.”

James shook his head with a wry grin. “However did I get myself into this, I ask?” He meant a great deal more than the social obligation, and they all knew it.

“I dunno, but it does solve our bit of a spat as well,” said Jack, an expression on his face like he simply couldn’t get over his own genius. “Now I’ve somewhere to leave you so’s you don’t brood yourself straight off the edge of the dock.”

James couldn’t summon Jack’s assurance about the lasting nature of their current arrangement. It had been a night beyond all reasonable - proper - _sane_ imagination, certainly, but he had his career and Jack had his _Pearl_ ; Will and Elizabeth had their fledgling marriage.

Hesitantly, he said, “I – I wouldn’t think to impose –”

“James, you twit,” said Elizabeth in exasperation, half-turning to kiss him deeply. She clasped his hand in her own, smiling at him as Will lifted their entwined fingers to his mouth.

“Gotta learn when to keep your trap shut,” Jack advised, his eyes softening at the pleased, natural smile curving James’ lips so beautifully.

A sigh passed through them, one by one. Comfortable silence stretched across the room until Elizabeth raised her cheek from the top of James’ head. “Breakfast is the one thing I feel I’m lacking in this world.”

“Coffee,” said Will wistfully.

“Tea,” James added. “With lemon and honey.” He rubbed his throat.

“Toast and butter and jam.” The words lingered on Elizabeth’s tongue as deliciously as the food itself.

“Rum!” Jack exclaimed brightly.

Three groans told him exactly how much his contribution would be appreciated.

“What? Last night happened when we were stone sober, remember – just imagine what we could get up to with some spirits in our bellies.”

Elizabeth gazed reflectively out the window. Will and James looked at each other and commiserated without a word spoken between them.


End file.
